Eyes Right: Military Takes A Step Toward Conservative Officer Corps

The American military is shedding its apolitical traditions in a trend that could soon lead to an exclusively right-wing, deeply partisan officer corps.

If you doubt this, the results could be seen recently at what might have been a glorious day in the 160-year life of the Virginia Military Institute that degenerated into a low farce.

Two proud women warriors strode into history as the first female graduates of the venerable school where lie buried such immortal commanders as Stonewall Jackson and George Marshall.

And a proud and unrepentant convicted burglar gave the commencement address.

You never saw so many obviously embarrassed grown men as the superintendent, faculty and most of the graduates who had to sit through G. Gordon Liddy's speech. It was explained that it was a matter of VMI's honor that Liddy be heard because he had been the second choice as a speaker by ballot of the seniors and since Antonin Scalia couldn't make it, it would have been ill-mannered not to hear Liddy.

Somehow I imagine it would have been an embarrassment that VMI has the toughness to survive.

Liddy did his part by appearing a character more ludicrous than sinister.

Since there were at least two certified, newly commissioned ladies present, gallantry might have prevented a more cultured man from making patronizing reference to them. Not Liddy. He urged that women revert to the second-class role they played in World War II, which he said they performed "splendidly." Clearly, Liddy's notion of the ideal woman soldier is WAC Lt. Kay Summersby playing endless rounds of bridge with her boss, the exhausted Gen. Eisenhower, as he pursued the Germans across North Africa and France.

He also advised cadets to avoid double talk, euphemism and politically correct speech.

"I was in nine prisons," he recalled. "None of them was called a prison." It still irks Liddy that he was forced to do time in "penitentiaries" and "correctional facilities."

He picked a curious audience for this argument. Most of them will join the Army, which is, of course, a bastion of double talk, euphemism and political correctness.

When I served, they called a common shovel an "entrenching tool." What any fool knows is a pup tent was a "two-man shelter," and you'd get yelled at by a sergeant for calling a "protective device" a gas mask. Underpants were called "drawers, cotton." And if an officer of one sex jumped in bed with an enlisted person of another, they didn't copulate, they "fraternized." When Pentagon officers schmooze members of Congress for money and favor, they never (gasp) lobby. They are doing "liaison" with civilian authorities.

The VMI class of 1999 is likely to contain a few future generals, perhaps a NATO commander or a chief of staff. What's more certain is that their politics will be more those of a Liddy than a Marshall.

Polling of senior U.S. officers shows that between 1976 and 1996 they went from being 33 percent Republican to 67 percent Republican.

Those calling themselves independents, once a majority, are now the exception, and liberals, outnumbered 4-1 in 1976, are now outnumbered 23-1.

Robert Reno is a columnist for Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Road, Melville, NY 11747.